Every Arthur C. Clarke Award winner, ranked by readers
The Arthur C. Clarke Award is chosen by a jury for the best science fiction novel published in the UK each year. It often picks more literary books than the American awards. Here are all 39 winners, ranked by reader ratings.
The highest rated: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, ★ 4.30 from 2,000+ ratings.
The ranking
1. Children of Time
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2016) · · Won 2016
Humanity’s last hope has a civilization of its own.
2. The Handmaid's Tale
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award; finalist for the Locus and Nebula Awards (1987) · · Won 1987
A woman’s account of life inside a state that claims ownership of her.
3. Station Eleven
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2015) · · Won 2015
After the collapse, a traveling theater keeps something human alive.
4. The Sparrow
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1998) · · Won 1998
The Sparrow is a novel about a remarkable man, a living saint, a life-long celibate and Jesuit priest, who undergoes an experience so harrowing and profound that it makes him question the existence of God.
5. The Underground Railroad
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award; finalist for the Locus Award (2017) · · Won 2017
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia.
6. Ancillary Justice
Won the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo and Nebula Awards (2014) · · Won 2014
A starship’s intelligence. One remaining body. A very personal reckoning.
7. Perdido Street Station
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award; finalist for the Nebula and Hugo Awards (2001–2003) · · Won 2001
Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia.
8. The City & the City
Won the Arthur C. Clarke and Hugo Awards; finalist for the Nebula Award (2010) · · Won 2010
Inspector Tyador Borlú must travel to Ul Qoma to search for answers in the murder of a woman found in the city of Besźel.
9. Body of Glass
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1993) · · Won 1993
He, She, and It (retitled Body of Glass in the United Kingdom) is a 1991 cyberpunk novel by American writer Marge Piercy.
12. Quicksilver
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award; finalist for the Locus Award (2004) · · Won 2004
Volume One of The Baroque Cycle (Not to be confused with Quicksilver: The Baroque Cycle 1) Quicksilver is a massive, exuberant and wildly ambitious historical novel that's also Neal Stephenson's eagerly awaited prequel to Cryptonomicon--his pyrotechnic reworking of the 20th century, from World War II…
13. Black Man
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2008) · · Won 2008
Black Man (published as Thirteen, stylised as Th1rte3n, in North America and later UK editions) is a 2007 science fiction novel by the British author Richard Morgan.
14. When There Are Wolves Again
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2026) · · Won 2026
The extraordinary speculative novel of past, present and future, by the Clarke Award-shortlisted author of THE CORAL BONES.
15. Venomous Lumpsucker
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2023) · · Won 2023
Venomous Lumpsucker is a 2022 novel by Ned Beauman.
16. Song of Time
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2009) · · Won 2009
Song of Time may refer to: Song of Time: Live at the Vision Festival, a 2004 album by NAM Song of Time, a 1996 Magic: The Gathering novel by Teri McLaren Song of Time, a 2008 novel by Ian R.
18. Dark Eden
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2013) · · Won 2013
Dark Eden is a social science fiction novel by British author Chris Beckett, first published in the United Kingdom in 2012.
19. In Ascension
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2024) · · Won 2024
In Ascension is a 2023 science fiction novel by British writer Martin MacInnes, published in the UK by Atlantic Books and in the US by Grove Atlantic.
20. The Sea and Summer
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award; finalist for the Nebula Award (1988–1989) · · Won 1988
Francis Conway is Swill - one of the millions in the year 2041 who must subsist on the inadequate charities of the state.
21. Unquenchable Fire
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1989) · · Won 1989
In an America where the miraculous is par for the course, where magic and myths are as real as shopping malls and television game shows, Jennifer Mazdan listens to the modern storytellers recite the tales of the Founders.
22. The Old Drift
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2020) · · Won 2020
On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there was once a colonial settlement called The Old Drift.
23. Deep Wheel Orcadia
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2022) · · Won 2022
Deep Wheel Orcadia is a science-fiction novel by Harry Josephine Giles.
24. The Separation
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2003) · · Won 2003
The Separation is a novel by British writer Christopher Priest, published in 2002.
25. Synners
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award; finalist for the Nebula Award (1992) · · Won 1992
In Synners, the line between technology and humanity is hopelessly slim.
26. Dreams Before the Start of Time
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2018) · · Won 2018
New ways to create children. New questions about being a family.
27. Nova Swing
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2007) · · Won 2007
Nova Swing is a science fiction novel by M.
28. The Animals in that Country
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2021) · · Won 2021
The Animals in That Country is a 2020 science fiction novel by Australian writer Laura Jean McKay, published by Scribe.
29. Distraction
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award; finalist for the Hugo and Locus Awards (1999–2000) · · Won 2000
It's November 2044, an election year, and the state of the Union is a farce.
30. The Testament of Jessie Lamb
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2012) · · Won 2012
Pregnancy becomes fatal. One teenager refuses to leave the future to adults.
31. Air
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award; finalist for the Nebula Award (2006) · · Won 2006
Air, also known as Air: Or, Have Not Have, is a 2005 novel by Geoff Ryman.
32. Dreaming in Smoke
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1999) · · Won 1999
Dreaming in Smoke is a science fiction novel by American writer Tricia Sullivan.
33. Iron Council
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award; finalist for the Hugo Award (2005) · · Won 2005
Following Perdido Street Station and The Scar, acclaimed author China Mieville returns with his hugely anticipated Del Rey hardcover debut.
34. The Calcutta Chromosome
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1997) · · Won 1997
A computer operator in New York stumbles on information regarding an experiment in 1895 Calcutta to change people.
35. Take Back Plenty
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1991) · · Won 1991
Take Back Plenty (1990), is a novel by British writer Colin Greenland, which won both major British science fiction awards, the 1990 British SF Association award and the 1991 Arthur C.
36. The Child Garden
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1990) · · Won 1990
The Child Garden is a 1989 science fiction novel by Canadian writer Geoff Ryman.
37. Fools
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1995) · · Won 1995
Personalities change hands. Even your own memories may betray you.
38. Bold as Love
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2002) · · Won 2002
Bold As Love, first published in 2001, is a science fiction novel by British writer Gwyneth Jones.
39. Fairyland
Won the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1996) · · Won 1996
In a near-future Europe, gene-hacker Alex Sharkey has created a new life form: fairies - genetically-altered dolls with human intelligence.
How we ranked
Every winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award since it began in 1987. Books are ranked by a weighted rating: each book’s average is blended with the library average as if it had 100 extra ratings, so a few enthusiastic votes cannot outrank a book thousands of readers love. Ratings are web-aggregated averages. The list updates automatically as new award results come in.